Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 14 Jun 2018

1. Labour frontbenchers quit as May wins Brexit vote

Six Labour MPs stepped down from frontbench roles to vote against Jeremy Corbyn and in support of the Government yesterday. The Labour rebels helped Theresa May see off an amendment to her Brexit bill suggested by the House of Lords that might have kept post-Brexit Britain in the European Economic Area, like Norway.

2. Trump on Kim: ‘People do bad things’

Donald Trump yesterday dismissed the death camps and other human rights abuses under Kim Jong Un’s rule in North Korea by saying: “A lot of people have done some really bad things.” The US president said the dictator was a “tough guy”, a “smart guy” and a “great negotiator”. Trump has returned to the US following his summit with Kim in Singapore.

3. May to relax immigration quota to boost NHS

The Government is to relax immigration rules put in place by Theresa May when she was home secretary in order to allow more non-EU citizens to come to the UK to work in the NHS. May’s visa cap has made it hard for the service to recruit enough staff, according to NHS bosses. Around 2,360 doctors have been refused entry over a five-month period, latest figures show.

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4. Towers go green to mark Grenfell fire anniversary

The devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in west London was commemorated early this morning, exactly a year after the first 999 call about the blaze. The remains of the council block and 12 surrounding buildings were floodlit in green at 12.54am. A total of 68 families are still in emergency accommodation after their homes in the fire.

5. Rolls-Royce to cut 4,600 jobs

Engineering firm Rolls-Royce has announced it will cut 4,600 jobs over the next two years as it attempts to grow its profits, with the brunt of the sackings amid middle managers and back-office staff. The firm says around a third of the jobs will go by the end of this year. Rolls-Royce hopes to be saving £400m a year by mid-2020 as a result of cuts.

6. Defamation payment to Rebel Wilson slashed

An Australian court has drastically cut what would have been a national record payment for defamation, to be made by Bauer Media to the Hollywood actress Rebel Wilson. The publisher is judged to have libelled Wilson by branding her a serial liar and had been ordered to pay her A$4.5m (£2.7m), but this has been reduced to A$600,000 (£338,000).

7. Police chief: rising crime result of inequality

One of the country’s most senior police chiefs has blamed economic inequality for rising crime. Assistant Met Commissioner Patricia Gallan told The Guardian that poorer people are left feeling that “they do not have a stake in society”. The police can deal with the “symptoms” of inequality but society must tackle the cause, she said.

8. Einstein’s racism revealed in travel diaries

Private diaries kept by Albert Einstein detailing his travels have been published for the first time – and feature the Nobel laureate making sweeping and negative comments about other races, despite the reputation he later earned for fighting segregation and defending black people’s rights in the US. The physicist calls the Chinese “spiritless and obtuse” in one entry.

9. Californians to vote on splitting state in three

Californians will vote in November on splitting their state into three smaller states. The plan was proposed by billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper, who says it would lead to “better infrastructure, better education and lower taxes”. There have been 200 attempts to subdivide California since it was founded in 1850, and the voters are expected to veto the latest bid.

10. Briefing: how North Korea reported the Singapore summit

The world is still trying to make sense of the historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, with Western media analysing everything from the two leaders’ body language to the symbolism behind their signatures.

In North Korea, however, the conclusion was clear: the meeting was a major diplomatic victory for Kim and for Pyongyang as a whole.

How North Korea reported the Singapore summit